Doing MMA is no walk in the park, and fight promotions are always suffering blows to their cards. UFC 142 in Rio is no different.
The first such setback for the promotion came at medium heavyweight, with Stanislav Nedkov, an unbeaten Bulgarian who won his fight last time the UFC was in Rio, alleged to have had visa problems and will not make it to his commitment with Fabio Maldonado. The fight was thus offered to Glover Teixeira, who had to turn it down because of a hand injury.
The second had to do with Paulo Thiago, a police officer on Brazil’s elite BOPE force who drove the crowd into a frenzy when he took on Mike Pyle at UFC Rio.
The welterweight suffered a severely dislocated elbow, and will be examined this afternoon. “I hurt it in wrestling, but I don’t want to say for certain I’ll have to pull out of the card; I’ll be able to answer that this afternoon,” said the black belt direct from Brasília, refusing to acknowledge the seriousness of the injury.
UFC 142
HSBC Arena, Barra, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
January 14, 2012
Paulo Thiago lands a fist on David Mitchell at UFC Rio 134. Photo: Divulgação/UFC.
José Aldo vs Chad Mendes
Vitor Belfort vs Anthony Johnson
Rousimar “Toquinho” Palhares vs Mike Massenzio
Erick Silva vs Siyar Bahadurzada
Edson Barboza vs Terry Etim
Thiago Tavares vs Sam Stout
Mike Pyle vs Adversário a ser definido
Yuri “Marajó” Alcântara vs Michirio Omigawa
Fabio Maldonado vs Adversário a ser definido
Rob Broughton vs Ednaldo “Lula” Oliveira
Felipe “Sertanejo” Arantes vs Antônio Carvalho
